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The flower of the Native Stage

MEENA BANERJEE

The four-day festival featuring theatrical productions on Nati Binodini, was a fitting tribute to an able artiste whose first love was theatre.

The first three days of the four-day-long festival saw three theatrical productions on Binodini’s life.

Probably provoked by the betrayals all around us – political, social and cultural – Academy Theatre presented “Bangarangamancher Binodini” (Binodini of Bengali Theatre) at Kolkata’s Birla Sabhagar to mark the 125th anniv ersary of a historical betrayal! Most of the theatre lovers are aware that Binodini Dasi (1863-1941) is known as the Prima Donna of the Bengali Stage, the ‘Flower of the Native Stage’, the legendary ‘Nati’ who put the stage on fire during her short stint (1873-1886); and also that desired by the rich and the noble of that era, this ‘fallen woman’ was blessed by none else than Ramakrishna Paramhansa for her role that peaked in piety in “Chaitanya-leela”.

But very few know that this committed shishya of the legendary Girish Chandra Ghosh had agreed to be owned by a young businessman in return for a theatre house solely for their theatre company. In recognition to her sacrifice for the cause, the auditorium situated in Beadon Street, was projected to be named after her. But it was not to be. Depriving her of her due, her mentor and co-actors had registered it as ‘Star Theatre’.

Binodini remained silent for the sake of her theatre company. Though devastated at her exploitation and yearning for solace in spirituality, she continued with her work for a few years and left behind an enduring impact as the pioneering actress of Bengal. Academy Theatre, known for its research based productions in the arena of stage and its songs, focused on the heartbreak suffered by Nati Binodini.

The first three days of the four-day-long festival saw three theatrical productions on Binodini’s life. While Bharatiya Jatra Samaj (Kolkata) and Dhaka Theatre (Bangladesh) presented plays in Bengali under the direction of Tridib Ghosh and Nasruddin Yousuf respectively, Theatre and Television Associates (Delhi), directed by Amal Allana, presented the Hindi version of Binodini’s autobiography.

Devjit Banerjee, who traced the authentic lyrics and tunes of that era with the help of old manuscripts, notations and records, scored music for this play. The final evening was dedicated to the extensive musical research by Banerjee who also emerged as a script writer, director and singer. Ably supported by a team of accompanists and his co-singer Riddhi Banerjee, he tried to retain the old traditional flavour of the songs. The script, superbly narrated by Soumitra Chatterjee, stringed the songs with historical facts and interesting anecdotes.